The fun still continues this afternoon and evening at the planetarium on the UMD campus. Astronomy Day goes on despite the spring snowfall. Don’t miss tonight’s guest speaker, Dr. Lawrence Rudnick, at 6:30 p.m. when he presents his program on "The Greatest Impact: We are Stardust." Look southeast tomorrow morning to find the moon and Jupiter – created… Read More

Tomorrow is Astronomy Day, an annual celebration of all things celestial. The weather looks horrible, which is all the more reason to come down to the Marshall Alworth planetarium on the UMD campus for a fun day of talks, sky shows, telescope and meteorite displays, and even a simulated mission to a killer asteroid. Simulated Mars mission (left) and… Read More

Monument to Laika, the first dog in space. It’s located in Moscow — AP Earlier this month, Russian officials unveiled a monument to Laika, one of the world’s most famous dogs. Laika, whose name means "barker", was a two-year-old stray, who was launched into space aboard the Sputnik II spacecraft on November 3, 1957. This was only the second… Read More

Moon at perigee (left) and apogee — NASA The nights are finally getting their voices back. I heard the wood frogs clucking for the first time yesterday evening while out observing with an astronomy group. We toured the galaxies, a few clusters and Saturn, the gem of the spring sky. Meanwhile the frogs sang music to the… Read More

Look high in the south around 9:30-10 p.m. to find the Beehive – created with Stellarium Tonight’s forecast is for clear weather so why not step outside and see if you can spot the famous Beehive Cluster in the constellation of Cancer the Crab. I’ve always enjoyed this spooky looking little cloud. To find it, look high… Read More